Tobias Thomas - Please Please PleaseTobias Thomas has always been the underdog of the Kompakt family. His DJ appearances are overshadowed by those of his limelight-stealing comrades Michael Mayer and DJ Koze, his productions are restricted to too-infrequent collaborations, and his mix releases have received less attention than any on the label. This is a shame because 'Please Please Please' – the conclusion of a mix CD trilogy begun with 'Fur Dich' and 'Smallville' – is as classy as anything bearing the Kompakt name, managing to encompass the sleek, timeless microhouse of Mayer's 'Immer' compendiums, Superpitcher's weepy emotionalism and Koze's ecelcticism with a number of lurching detours of Thomas' own.

The mix is very much in line with Kompakt’s mix CD ethos of a 'journey' through obscure-but-hardy personal favourites rather than a trawl through recent club bangers. The first ten minutes are even beatless – you don’t reach the drums until the scene is properly set with the bowed sheet metal of Pantha du Prince's 'Butterfly Girl' and the music-box chimes of Adolf Noise's 'Was Ist Zuviel Zeit (Dub)'. The beats come slow, mind, with Krause Duo's 'Kingpult' leisurely slapping a wet flipper against the side of a boat, like a seal on holiday, while shards of vinyl crackle fill in the gaps. Johannes Heil's 'Aquarius' keeps to the maritime theme with gurgles and drowned sleigh bells, and Vulva String Quartet's 'Wild Wild Berry' ups the ante somewhat but, at mid-tempo, their bottom-heavy lurch positively drags along the pavement. There follows a stream of minimal tracks until, suddenly and surprisingly, we're at an almost-club-friendly skip. Villalobos' 'The Contempt (Trip Toolsmix)' from 1995 (!) offers a kickless rumbling shuffle, Thomas/Burger's 'My Favourite Dress' pays bleepy homage to their football heroes and Reinhard Voigt's 'Suchtkultur' packs a screeching electro wallop, presenting the Thomas you're likely to hear out of doors.

The home stretch takes another turn altogether, with jittery, emotionally wrought vocals crooning 'Please please please' in International Pony's 'Gravity', as weeping walls of synths sigh in the background. Here would be the logical place to end, but Thomas reels out his own Geiger via Stella collaboration, putting drums and muscle to Fleetwood Mac's 'Dreams' for an odd, final tech-pop shimmy. It’s a strange turn, but it’s been a strange ride, with surely the slowest run of minimal tracks to appear together on CD, and shifts and turns linear purists may find unsettling. Nonetheless, Thomas segues these transitions effortlessly, and while certain chapters may find the test of time less kind, on the whole 'Please Please Please' offers a joyous ride through the crates of one of Cologne's more adventurous DJs.

14 comments

extremely boring stuff. it was written that this mix has a very personal touch - what seems to be a modern version in expressing to not find a clear musical structure providing sense. it was said you would like to listen to this mix ten years later - i doubt this. each mix done in the past that is still worth listening offers something exceptionell. here you first find the imitation of depth, followed by good tracks played in a bad groove with mediocre sound and ending in one of the worst the smiths cover versions i've ever heared. really ask myself how a dj can describe himself as being a big fan of the smiths and then taking such a crap for ending his mix. useless, overrated. that's what i call a fake mix. btw: "different colors", bunching a lot of influences and these types of characteristics in most cases are only describing the lack of ability of developing a musical structure. it's easier to switch than to stick on your musical theme in trying to go further out of it.

As Kompakt releases become an ever increasing percentage of the 100 plus CDs that get added to my collection every year anything new always gets a spin and fair consideration. With Total 6, Total 7, Immer 2, Kaito, Pop Ambient 7, Gui Boratto, and The Field of more recent measuring sticks, it's hard to argue their qualitative statements in the musical minefields. I admit to a bit of 'what the......' on initial listening. Not being familiar with his previous two mix CDs I have no reference point other than his contributions to additional Kompakt mass gatherings. Since I list big time toward ambient waves and waters the opening 4 song mantra caught me shoe-gazing at my own stumbling feet before the beat meters stood me upright, shanking jive, cutting oriental Turkish rug.

My reflective thoughts run 'bienvenidos a'la casa de muy weirdos' concluding Mr. Thomas as a DJ is not only a mystery, he is doubly a super-hero in the big house of his own mind. I find this territory somewhat uncharted, a bit askew, but never formulaic. It's like he had a definitive start point plotted, then operated strictly by feel and intuition later in the mix. Thinking all these different origins might sound great throw with purpose but not target, he proceeds without abandon and restriction. Once in, I grow more accustomed to his surroundings and realize that his is a big house with room for plenty. Who cares if it leans towards Piza? This is fodder of a different breed, and different is usually better. Primal, beatific, esoteric, and animal friendly. I bet five on the fifth horse in the fifth race, please.

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Kompakt is a record store, an international distributor, a record label and the home of the “Cologne sound”.
Launched in 1998 by Wolfgang Voigt, Jurgen Paape and Michael Mayer upon the back of pre-existing labels Profan and Auftrieb, Kompakt soon developed its signature “Cologne Sound” – a mix of minimalism, melody, and melancholy, often with an underlying pop sensibility.
Over the past seven years Kompakt’s inherent love of melody and emotion has seen the label embrace such seemingly disparate styles as ambient, minimal techno, tech-house, shuffle-tech, trance, and pop.
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